The Current State of Cardiac Care

Cardiac care in the US is under severe stress

Between the baby boomers reaching middle age, too few cardiologists, and antiquated health care reimbursement policies – patients with atrial fibrillation are not receiving the highest quality care. Atrial fibrillation contributes to about 130,000 deaths each year, some of which are avoidable.

The World Is Changing

Smart people understand, and are driving change

The government, insurance companies, cardiologists, and health care providers (hospitals, accountable care organizations, etc.) agree that delivering proactive and preventative care will save lives and reduce costs. So there are many initiatives in flight to improve cardiac care in that direction.

The Obstacles to Success in Cardiac Care

However, there are real obstacles ahead

Poor data quality

Reimbursement policies are outdated

Insufficient access to doctors

Patients don’t always follow instructions

What’s the solution?

We need to re-engineer the total process

The US government is driving an ‘outcome-based care’ model to replace the current fee-for-service model. That means that hospitals and physicians get paid more if patients are healthier. Leveraging the everbeat platform, physicians can keep a close eye on their patient’s condition between visits, and intervene early if they see a problem – weight gain, poor medication compliance, deteriorating blood pressure or ECGs, or a reduction in activity. The patient and their caregivers have a much clearer sense of their heart health, and that transparency makes behaving better easier.

Summary

At everbeat, we believe powerful technology can bring intimacy to the cardiologist – patient relationship. Doctors will have continuous access to patient data and behavior that can lead them to intervene and take steps to understand if a problem is developing, if the patient is not taking proper care of themselves, or even to encourage patients who have really taken their care plan compliance seriously.

The patient will have an ability to see how they are doing against a complex set of doctor’s instructions through the lens of a simple score. Through gentle reminders and positive feedback from their doctors and their family caregivers, the patient will take better care of themselves leading to better heart health. If they do start to see problems develop, they will know to contact their doctor proactively rather than wait 3 months for the next scheduled visit. Their doctor and their staff will see the same information at the same time and can also proactively contact the patient to evaluate next steps. Today, the patient may wait until they have a stroke, a heart attack or other serious symptoms to seek help. The everbeat platform provides a means to continuously monitor heart health and help the cardiologist see potential issues before a significant event occurs. And that will save lives, improve outcomes for the doctor and their ACO, and reduce total health care expenses. Everyone wins.

The key is accurate information presented to the cardiologist in an easy-to-use, risk-ranked manner. The everbeat Dashboard, designed by cardiologists for cardiologists, can modernize cardiac health care, dramatically streamline office operations, and restore patient intimacy even while the patient roster grows. That’s the power of technology.